More pain before more gains on sharemarkets

It seems hard to imagine now, but last May Macquarie Group shares nearly cracked the $100 mark.
Since then a global credit crunch hasn't done the investment bank any favours. On Friday Macquarie's shares closed $1.57 lower at $45.43 - less than half a record high of $98.64 in May.
In more bad news, the Australian sharemarket is likely to open lower today after steep losses on US markets caused by continuing recession worries in the US.
On Wall Street on Friday stocks fell to close at their lowest level in 19 months after a report showed that employers unexpectedly shed jobs at the steepest rate in nearly five years, standing as confirmation for many investors that the US is in recession.
Investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, that had been scheduled to report their fourth-quarter earnings this week, postponed their results announcements until next week.
Goldman Sachs JBWere said that in the past two weeks more than a dozen analysts had lowered their first-quarter profit estimates for investment banks on expectations of more writedowns associated with the collapse of the subprime market.
On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average slid by 146.70 points, or 1.22 per cent, to 11,893.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell by 10.97 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 1293.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 8.01 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 2212.49.
AMP Capital Investors' head of investment strategy, Shane Oliver, said the local sharemarket would open lower today.
"The further fall in US sharemarkets on Friday night and futures trading in Australian shares indicates the Australian sharemarket will fall another 90 to 100 points or so … which will take it below its January 22 panic low of 5186 on the ASX 200," he said.
On the local market on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was 171.5 points, or 3.16 per cent, lower at 5264, while the broader All Ordinaries fell by 163 points, or 2.95 per cent, to 5368.9.
Mr Oliver said he expected weakness in the sharemarket to continue in the coming months.
"Notwithstanding occasional bounces, further weakness is likely in the months ahead before better conditions return later this year."
With the company reporting season coming to a close, there is a big week ahead in terms of economic data.
Monthly housing finance data is due out tomorrow, the ANZ job ads for February will be released tomorrow, monthly consumer sentiment data is published on Wednesday and on Thursday the monthly employment figures will be released.